Who is more important employee or customer? It is an exciting topic, isn’t it? Customer is the revenue provider of a company, but how can you put aside skilled employees who are an asset for a company? Isn’t it like a “floorless basket” separating employees and customers? Before going to the main discussion, let us look at the definition of the two below:
Employee: Who gets paid to service for a company or organization is called employee.
Customer: Who buys products is generally called customer.
Who is more important employee or customer?
Now we will discuss each of the topics separately then combinedly and after that the concluding remark.
Role of an employee
Of course, we are talking about a skilled employee. Now how can we recognize a competent employee? There are some characteristics of a skilled employee.
- Leadership Skills
- Organizational Skills
- Super written and verbal communication knowledge
- Active listening skills
- Honesty
- Ambition
- Strong work ethics
- Loyalty
- Friendly
- Punctuality
The customer first deals with an employee, not the manager or owner. If a customer gets a smiling face at the time of the entrance of a shop, he will get a positive impression. It is called ‘the first impression lasts long.’
According to Gallup, ‘high performing employees have three things in common. Talent, high engagement, ten years+ service experience in the same organization’. Jolly minded employees are an asset to a company. Their smiling face drag customers to come back again, and can produce a pleasant working environment. Life means having a glace of smile all the time, right? So, if an employee can make you smile, then why will you not be back again?
Why employees are essential for a company?
Now take a glance at some statistics about why employees are essential for a company below.
- Productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations with connected employees (Source: The Mckinsey Global Institute)
- Superior talent is up to eight times more productive than average employee (Source: Mckinsey)
- Non-farm labor productivity rose 6% in the first quarter of 2019, the highest in the four years (Source: U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics)
- Employees who are engaged are 27% more likely to report excellent performance (Source: Kronos Incorporated and Future workplace)
- Organizations with a robust onboarding process improve productivity by more than 70% (Source: Dynamic Signal Communication to Activation Impact Study)
- The vast majority of the world 2.7 billion workers 80% don’t sit at desks and are harder to engage (Source: The Rise of the deskless workforce report)
So skilled employees can take a company to the peak of its prosperity. Often it is heard that company owners do not give importance to the employees. It may not the right way to progress.
Earl Nightingale famously said, ”Our attitude towards others determines their attitude towards us”.
A simple hi, hello at the time of entrance in the office, can cheer them up. Arranging a meeting after a short time intervals is an excellent way to communicate with them face to face about their feelings. A holiday party can be arranged to know their condition. An award can be given to the bright individual and team at work. Thus an organization can go a long way with a skilled employee.
Role of customer
Is there any doubt that customer is all in all in a company? No, right? Consumers provide revenue to a company and with which all the employees are being paid off. Without a customer, no company can run. Will there stay any employee without payment? No, right? If consumers start to go for another choice, the company must fall gradually. A customer can inform another customer, and thus profit may increase.
If the only customer is preferred
There are a lot of organizations that give importance to the customer only. In many cases, employees are neglected. Then the upset employee will not work heartily, and this impacts customer service, and thus customers also become dissatisfied. A dissatisfied employee provides lousy service. A customer pays not only for a product, whether it be a bag or pencil, but also for the company’s assistance. So why would he go to open his wallet for a pediculous service? No, right? Yes, they deserve good behavior from the employee, whether it be a gateman or a salesman.
If employees are more important
If employees are preferred, then they may be overconfident and may not be loyal to customers. Customers may feel inferior in front of careless employees, and that will impact on the customer. Why will they come to such a shop where they think inadequacy? They will quit for another choice. According to statistics
“48% of consumers expect specialized treatment for being good consumer” (Source: Microsoft)
So, is there any scope to give more importance to an employee than a customer. No, right?
If both are important
When the owner of a company takes care of his employee’s needs and demands, they will be happy. Then when a customer comes to the shop, the employees will pay attention to the customer with more loyally. Thus the customer would be satisfied. If a customer gets exemplary behavior, he will come again to the shop, and he would never search for other competitors. There is no doubt that the customer can take a company to board. Then can you put aside the customers? They are the magic stick that produces money. Let us view some statistics:
- Globally, 54% of all consumers say that they have higher consumer service expectations than they did just one year ago. (Source: Microsoft)
- 52% of people around the world believe that companies need to take action on feedback provided by their customers (Source: Microsoft)
- Across the globe, 96% of consumers say customer service is an essential factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand (Source: Microsoft)
- 39% of consumers will avoid a company for two years (Dimensional Research)
So from the above discussion, we can say that without an employee, a company can not run, and without the customer, a company can not survive. So both are important equally. Eliminating one, it will be like “sweet without sugar.”
But, if we want to say which one is more important. Of course, we have to say customers or consumers or targeted people. Because, whether it is a profitable company or no-profitable organizations, who are the targeted people. Surely we have to say, consumers or users. For example, we want to mention Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, or the social world or internet globe or e-commerce.
In conclusion, we determine that customers or users or beneficiaries are more critical than employees in a profitable company or non-profitable organizations in the 21st century. So, we can say that efficient employees are for big volume customers or users or beneficiaries, and customers are not for employees.